Dear Netters,
below find enclosed an announcement of "The Plant Molecular Evolution
Newsletter". I am posting this on behalf of Dr. Martin (see below), who is
responsible for organization and distribution. So if you have any questions
or comments, please contact him direct.
This announcement is posted on bionet.general, bionet.plants and bionet.molbio.
evolution. Apologies for this cross-postings, but I want to reach everybody
being potential interested.
Klaus Schumann
Fachbereich Biologie
Universitaet Kaiserslautern
D-67653 Kaiserslautern
schumann at rhrk.uni-kl.de
-------------------------------Clip here------------------------------------
Announcement: "The Plant Molecular Evolution Newsletter"
At a recent meeting*, it was concluded that a number of research
groups worldwide are working on similar or related questions of plant
evolution through study of the same gene(s). It was furthermore noted
that an enormous backlog of molecular sequence data exists which, for
various reasons, is reaching neither the database nor the literature.
As a consequence, some efforts in current plant molecular phylogenetic
reasearch are redundant. The general opinion was that there is a genuine
need for a rapidly distributed and informal newsletter for groups
working on or interested in molecular phylogenetics of plants. Thus,
as of July 1, 1992, we have been issuing "The Plant Molecular
Evolution Newsletter" as an informal forum for exchange of ideas and
data.
The Newsletter distributes - U N R E F E R E E D - all contributions
submitted which contain either i) experimental data, ii) data evaluation
and/or iii) discussion as concerns molecular evolution in plants.
Submissions
- cannot be used or cited by others without express consent of the
authors
- should concern higher plant and eukaryotic algal, but not fungal
evolution
- should be in English
- may be of the simple "For the Record" type, i.e. just the data
- need not contain complete sequences
- may contain just ideas
- may just report what topics the authors have recently been
working on
- may include figures and discussion
- will not require database accessions to sequences
- should be on A4 or 8 1/2" x 11" paper with at least 3 cm margins
- should not be longer than five double-spaced typewritten pages
(excluding data)
- will be reproduced and distributed precisely as submitted (full
author responsibility)
- and importantly, should not contain detailed analysis of
unavailable data (since this is precisely the problem which
needs to be solved).
The Newsletter should stimulate cooperation and deal primarily with
research in progress. It should facilitate access to unpublished
comparative data, and represent a forum for new ideas and
interpretation of data. It is a quarterly forum within which the
reader can find out "who's doing what" or "who may wish to cooperate
on a formal paper". It will be of value to the scientific community to
precisely the extent that authors contribute. A grant from UNESCO
covered costs for the first issue, so that this may be obtained free upon
request. Subsequent subscription costs DM 25.00 (US $15.00) per year.
To ensure that the Newsletter will be a forum for
e x c h a n g e,
subscribers are encouraged to submit at least one full page contribution
per twelve month period.
If you wish to receive the first free edition of the Newsletter or submit
a contribution to the next issue, forward your correspondence to
Bill Martin
Institut fuer Genetik
Technische Universitaet Braunschweig
Spielmennstrasse 7
D-38106 Braunschweig
Germany
fax 49-531-391-5765
e-mail martin at venus.gbf-braunschweig.dbp.de
telephone 49-531-391-5785.
* UNESCO Conference on Plant Molecular Phylogenetics
Jan. 13 - 15, 1992, Cologne, Germany
Subscribers to the first issue currently include the UNSECO Conference
Paticipants
A. Antonov, Moskow, Russia
W.-H. Li, Houston, USA
W.-Y. Liu, Shanghai, China
P. Martin, Adelaide, Australia
W. Martin, Braunschweig, Germany
V. Ratner, Novosibirsk, Russia
H. Saedler, Cologne, Germany
and many others including
I. Akatsuka, Tokyo, Japan
R. Alberte, Arlington, USA
K. Bachmann, Amsterdam, Netherlands
J. Beardall, Clayton, Australia
W. Bennert, Bochum, Germany
B. Bremer, Uppsala, Sweden
G. Brown, Laramie, USA
M. Chase, Chapel Hill, USA
S.-M. Chaw, Taipei, Taiwan
C. Colacino, Potenza, Italy
M. Crisp, Canberra, Australia
S. Douglas, Halifax, Canada
M. Duvall, Riverside, USA
F. Ehrendorfer, Vienna, Austria
P. Gadek, Kensington, Australia
M. Gardiner-Garden, Sydney, Australia
D. Graur, Tel Aviv, Israel
M. Gray, Halifax, Canada
M. Hasebe, Tokyo, Japan
R. Herrmann, Munich, Germany
J. Heslop-Harrison, Norwich, England
H. Hurka, Osnabruck, Germany
V. Huss, Erlangen, Germany
M. Ito, Tokyo, Japan
R. Jansen, Austin, USA
U. Jensen, Bayreuth, Germany
C. Jung, Munich, Germany
T. Kajita, Sendai, Japan
S. Kresovich, Geneva, USA
J. Learn, Riverside, USA
A. Liston, Corvallis, USA
J. Logsdon, Bloomington, USA
S. Loiseaux-de Gor, Roscoff, France
J.-F. Manen, Chambesy, Switzerland
H. Micheals, Bowling Green, USA
G. McFadden, Melbourne, Australia
M. Melkonian, Cologne, Germany
B. Mishler, Durham, USA
N. Murakami, Tokyo, Japan
B. Ness, Angwin, USA
D. Nickrent, Carbondale, USA
Y. Ogihara, Yokohama, Japan
J. Palmer, Bloomington, USA
D. Penny, Palmerston N., New Zealand
M. Ragan, Halifax, Canada
C. Quinn, Kensington, Australia
N. Saitou, Mishima, Japan
V. Savolaienen, Chambesy, Switzerland
D. Schweitzer, Vienna, Austria
T. Shimizu, Kanazawa, Japan
P. Sitte, Freiburg, Germany
D. Soltis, Pullman, USA
D. Steane, Oxford, England
K. Stueber, Cologne, Germany
S. Swenson, Knoxville, USA
T. Terachi, Kyoto, Japan
R. Terauchi, Kyoto, Japan
K. Ueda, Osaka, Japan
J. Wendell, Ames, USA
K. Wolfe, Dublin, Ireland
K. Yamada, Toyama, Japan
K. Yoshinaga, Shizuoka, Japan
F. Zechman, Philadelphia, USA
K. Zetsche, Giessen, Germany
E. Zimmer, Washington, USA
I was "elected" to be responsible for organization and distribution of
the Newsletter. Therefore, if you wish to be included in the list of
subscribers, please let me know. You will receive
confirmation of your correspondence within two weeks.
If you have further questions or suggestions, please contact me. Hoping
to hear from you soon and looking forward to your contribution, I remain
Yours sincerely,
Bill Martin
*********************************************************************
That was the original announcement which was sent last summer
as hard copy to about 150 addresses worldwide and by e-mail to a
few addresses which I had obtained. Recently, Klaus Schumann
(Kaiserslautern, Germany) suggested the idea of BIONET distribution
of the announcement. That seemed like an excellent idea and this
file is the result. The following excerpt from the Preface to the
first issue of the Plant Molecular Evolution Newsletter contains some
further information.
.
.
.
International reasonce to the idea of an informal newsletter dealing
specifically with this field was very positive, as documented by the
list of over 100 scientists from 17 countries (see pages 39-42, thanks
to all) who have expressed interest to date. Thus, there clearly exists a
"demand" for information on plant molecular evolution, it is up to us to
provide "supply" in the form of contributions. The question is then just
what a contribution should contain? The original announcement for the
Newsletter (reproduced above in this document) described a few very
general stipulations which represent the consensus of many long
discussions with numerous scientists. I should briefly delineate
the reasoning behind each.
1. Submissions will not be refereed, all contributions will be
distributed as submitted. We need a newsletter, not another journal. We
can express our ideas and opinions precisely as we wish directly to
those who very likely will have an interest in what we have to say. Lack
of a refereeing process puts full responsibility for the content of
contributions upon the authors, speeds up the distribution process and
provides us with a degree of freedom we currently do not have
elsewhere.
2. Submissions cannot be used or cited by others without express
consent of the authors. This is common practice for many newsletters
and is intended promote an open atmosphere. Distribution of
information through the Newsletter does not preclude formal
publication in journals and vice versa.
3. Submissions should concern higher plant and eukaryotic algal, but not
fungal evolution. This point hinges on the definition of a plant, which
poses no problem if you work on angiosperms, but becomes increasingly
relevant the further back you go in eukaryotic evolution.
4. Submissions should be in English. There already IS a plant molecular
evolution newsletter in Japanese. As a second language, English was the
logical choice.
5. Submissions may be of the simple "For the Record" type, i.e. just the
data. This provides an opportunity to make data available rapidly to
those who will likely have an interest in it or who may have been
planning to sequence precisely that gene. Getting sequences "out"
quickly helps avoid redundant work. Remember point (2) above.
6. Submissions need not contain complete sequences. Many PCR and
reverse transcriptase approaches yield incomplete sequences which, of
course, are phylogenetically very valuable.
7. Submissions may contain just ideas. There should be sufficient
subject matter for comment or debate in the field of plant evolution. No
referee will lament the fact that submitted discussion is, in his or her
opinion, "too speculative."
8. Submissions may just report what topics the authors have recently
been working on. This aspect should be particularly valuable to those of
us who, for various reasons, are unable to attend all such international
meetings as might be of interest.
9. Submissions may include figures and discussion. This was just to
make it clear that figures are welcome.
10. Submissions will not require database accessions to sequences.
This point may be somewhat controversial. It was intended to further
promote an open and informal atmosphere and to avoid the "threshold"
of filling out database submission forms, should this represent a
deterrent to contribution. In my opinion, requiring accession numbers is
the responsibility of a journal, not a newsletter, and would surely tend
to reduce the number of contributions, which cannot be in Newsletter
participants' best interest.
11. Submissions should be on A4 or 8 1/2" x 11" paper with at least 3
cm margins. The emphasis here is on "paper" which can be easily
reproduced. Many scientists suggested e-mail submission and/or e-mail
distribution. E-mail submissions would have to be formatted and
printed in my office, which albeit involves only a minimal of time per
contribution, but moreover places final responsibility for appearance of
the contribution upon me, not the authors. I beg participants'
understanding on this point. E-mail distribution? In my opinion, that is
a good idea in principle, but lack of an electronic mailbox would
preclude participation, which wouldn't be fair. Figures would also be
difficult to distribute. I would strongly urge all participants to make
their e-mail address available.
12. Submissions should not be longer than five pages (excluding data).
This is an arbitrary but not unreasonable limit. "Data" is intended to
mean sequences.
13. Submissions will be reproduced and distributed precisely as
submitted (full author responsibility). This is a reiteration of point (1)
above for clarity. The desired goal is rapid and efficient distribution.
14. Submissions should not contain detailed analysis of unavailable
data. The emphasis is on "unavailable" and should merely encourage
participants, in the general interest of all concerned, to make available
sequence data that has been analysed and discussed here or elsewhere.
These conditions for contributions appear to cover most of the relevant
apsects. The Newsletter can fulfill various functions and can grow in a
number of directions. Meeting reports, announcements of forthcoming
symposia, minireviews, notes on recently published and forthcoming
papers, etc. would surely all be welcomed by readers. If the primary
goal is to keep concerned scientists abreast of new developments and
ongoing projects, it seems to me only logical that contributions of a
"meetings abstract" type should be both highly suitable for the
Newsletter and sincerely welcomed by those receiving it. Longer, more
elaborate submissions involving figures, etc., will, of course, also be
welcomed and should fulfill a different function for both readers and
contributors.
If you are interested in participating in the
Plant Molecular Evolution Newsletter
or have further questions, contact
Bill Martin
Institut fuer Genetik
Technische Universitaet Braunschweig
Spielmannstrasse 7
D-38106 Braunschweig
Federal Republic of Germany
telephone 49-531-391-5785
fax 49-531-391-5765
e-mail martin at venus.gbf-braunschweig.dbp.de